Dinosaur Games: Hunt or be hunted!

Dinosaur games bring back all those childhood memories of adventure, archaeology, and exploration. We’ve all seen the Jurassic Park films (if you haven’t, where have you been?) in which contained dinosaurs break free and hunt the measly humans who captured them. Well, dinosaur games tend to run on the same principle: hunt or be hunted!

Dinosaurs games usually aim to invoke feelings of dread and fear, using the global phobia of the T-rex, fresh from the Jurassic Park franchise, where around 80% of the cast were gobbled up by the long-toothed predator. Most involve hunting where you are tasked with hunting the Jurassic monsters with an assortment of weapons while fighting for survival on what is likely a remote island. If it sounds cliché, it’s because it is and these games usually are. However, in a comic twist, some games let your ride these prehistoric beasts as mounts covering large distances while bouncing around on their scaly backs.

Types of Dinosaurs

You can find lots of different types of these behemoth lizards in dinosaur games. Some, you may never have heard of, like the Spinosaurus, which (for your information) is the largest of the carnivorous dinosaurs, dwarfing the T-rex by meters! You will likely see other dinosaurs like the Triceratops and the Diplodocus, the one with the big head and the one with the long neck, respectively. Some dinosaurs in these games are fictional, and made up, but most are based on the real thing, even if their size might be somewhat exaggerated.

Gameplay in Dinosaur Games

Most dinosaur games are shooters, which is to be expected, as a lot of games will be about survival and trying to escape the jaws of the impending predator. The free-to-play games invite players to explore their survival instincts. Living side by side with the dinosaurs, your task is to fight for the essential resources, like food and water, while being careful to avoid the bloodthirsty raptors at the same time. Then there are the more comical games, where players ride upon giant multi-coloured dino mounts and chase each other with ray guns, in gameplay that is representative of a classic MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). Sadly, particularly for the dinosaurs, there aren’t many games which don’t involve hunting and killing these historic creatures. Poor things, what did they ever do wrong?

Guns

As these games are fictional, we are often presented with an equally fictitious list of weapons with which we can desecrate these graceful creatures. That being said, most games will incorporate real guns too. The list below highlights the types of weapons that you would normally find in a dino game.

Ray guns

Rocket launchers

Rifles

Machine Guns

Sniper rifles

Knives

Admittedly, this might be quite a generic list (notice the lack of smaller weapons). You have to remember that dinosaurs aren't taken down as easily as people, so these games tend to favour the larger, heavier weapons.

Most dinosaur games are for the console, but there are a growing number of dinosaur games online. Not many are designed for mobile devices because these games tend to require the larger screen and higher performance of an actual computer. Free dinosaur games will also be largely based online or on Facebook. But, again, it all depends on the game.